Awareness and discipline .. Indian women's plan to address men's violence

Shamshad Hussain - India

The sound of moaning and crying comes from behind the walls of poor houses in marginalized villages, everyone used to hear those voices, and why not preceded by a fuss and screaming, no one intervened to save the women of the house from the hands of the father who returned drunk in the evening. The use of beatings as a means of extracting all the money earned by the women of the house during his absence, a frequent scenario witnessed by Indian families, whether in large cities or small villages, violence by couples is normal after eating intoxicants.

The situation began to change lately, when women rallied and declared war on intoxicants, the mother of problems, and the main cause of domestic violence against them.

Green Group
Years ago, specifically in 2015, teams of women gathered to fight alcohol and drugs and tackle violence against females in the village of Khush Yari near the city of Waranasi, which is represented in Parliament by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Within two years, the group expanded to move to neighboring villages, and then to a wider area where the Directorate of Merzafor is located.

They wear the traditional Indian green dress, called "sari", so they are known as the "green group". The group's goals are clear: to demand that men quit alcohol, drugs and violence against their women, and if advice does not affect the group's use of physical force to prevent them from this behavior.

How was the group founded?
Duyancho, a student at the University of Waranasi, was wandering on the shore of the Ganga River, seeing a woman with two children looking for food in the trash, and finding something to feed her children. One of the main causes of family problems there was found that most of the men in the village were addicted to alcohol, drugs and gambling.

The women of the village work in the fields during the day, throwing a penalty known by their husbands and relatives in the evening, and when the Amal team tried to reach them to raise awareness, fear was a barrier between them, considering them untrustworthy strangers.

After several attempts their fears were dissipated, especially after the women learned to read and write by the Hope team, they were even opened with bank accounts and had access to jobs suited to their abilities.

A state of consciousness began to exist among the village women, followed by another project, their self-defense training, to combat violence against females.

Police friends
The women's groups started to face the problems of their own society through awareness campaigns against alcohol, drugs and violence against women. They also played an important role in curbing crimes and spreading political awareness among women. Due to its distinctive role, police in the state of Uttar Pradesh decided to consider this group as “friends of the police”, which gave the group a social consideration and legal umbrella.

Red Group
This group of women emerged in 2006 in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh (one of India's poor districts). This is one of the poorest districts in the country in terms of economics, where it is rife with a complex combination of social problems, such as: illiteracy among women and the complex caste system, child labor, marriage of minors, domestic violence, asking for money from the girl at marriage and alcoholism among men.

Ms. Sembat Pal Dewey did not attend school at the beginning of her life, but because of her desire to study she learned to read and write from her brothers who went to school.When her uncle saw her desire to learn her record in school, where she studied to the fourth grade level and then married at 12 years old.

She saw someone beat his wife harshly, and she asked him for mercy, but she told her in obscene terms. The next day I went to him with five women armed with sticks and he replied in the same violent manner.

The news spread among women such as forest fires, and from then on, women with violence began to gather around her and join her group to get rid of that hell. The group even chose for itself the name "Gulabi Ging" (red group), and decided that the dress code for her sari was red. .

Members of the Red Group carry sticks to forced reform, as they see it, as a means of punishing men who commit domestic violence against their women.

Punishment for men and projects for women
The group, which chose beating as a means of responding to men, took a parallel approach to protecting women from male violence, by providing vocational training courses to provide them with a pension, by employing hundreds of women in household and handicraft projects, bringing the lady's income to around Rs 150 ($ 2.5). ) Daily.

The green and red groups have been the subject of discussion and research in the past years in the Indian media, having had a major impact on women in poor communities. They may often face many criticisms in closed societies, but in the end there is a result of changing conditions. Women's power to be reckoned with.